Let the campaign begin.

Mitt Romney, the pride of Belmont and Salt Lake City, visited Dorchester on Monday evening, joining other statewide candidates in speaking at the annual Adams Corner election-eve rally.

Mitt's advance people were a little off target- they had heard the event would start at 6:30 p.m., so the GOP candidate arrived early himself, and found he had some time to kill. So Mr. Romney and his running mate, Kerry Healy, quickly arranged for their own media event: they dropped in on the Eire Pub, swarming through the regulars there, posing for some TV pictures as the pair drew one or two drafts and served them at the bar.

Now Mitt Romney is certainly an attractive candidate, and apparently an accomplished businessman. And in the five months since he dumped Governor Jane Swift from office, he has made any number of half-hour forays into the working class world: he's served a sausage roll outside a Red Sox game, he rode on a garbage truck on Beacon Hill, he's driven tractors on a working farm. All the events are designed to show that, hey, Mitt Romney is really like you and me.

But what do we really know about this Republican candidate? His half year candidacy reveals he's a high profile celebrity, with a demeanor seemingly pleasing and down to earth. He makes great acceptance speeches- witness his five minute election night address, filled with sound bite after sound bite- long on mantra, short on substance. He and Healy say they will change the culture on Beacon Hill, but they have yet to say how. They promise to break the gridlock at the State House, but hide the fact the corner office has been controlled by their party for the last 12 years. We have had first William Weld, then Paul Cellucci, and Jane Swift- solid Republicans all, and all have left before their time. Is the job of Massachusetts Governor just too difficult for Republicans, or do they just quickly lose interest? Even the GOP convention-endorsed candidate, Jim Rappaport, had his suspicions about Romney's future, suggesting that if he wins Mr. Romney will likely be gone on to bigger and better things within two years.

We really do not know anything about the Romney/Healy ticket, but we do know they make a nice appearance. As to whether either of them now how to make life better for the working people hey rub elbows with from time to time, well, we shall see. -Ed Forry

The Boston Police union was asking its members this week to support a vote of "no confidence" in Police Commissioner Paul Evans.

The union takes the position that the Commissioner is endangering their members by suggesting that cops should not shoot at speeding cars. Too many innocent people can get hurt- just as happened last week, when a Boston cop shot and killed a Dorchester woman sitting in the back seat of a car that struck an officer while fleeing from a traffic violation.

It is self-evident that policing is a dangerous job: society asks the cops to deal with some tough problems, and expects them to protect us from the evil-doers.

But we also ask them not to shoot and kill innocent people.

The message of the police union would have more resonance if its leaders would express some compassion for the family of the 25 year old Dorchester mother who was killed by a cop's gunshots. Instead, they demand the Police Commissioner's head for daring to impose some management policies.

In this matter, concerned citizens can only express support for Commissioner Evans. He's a good man, doing a complicated job, and he clearly has the public's best interest in mind.

E.F.